And I got plenty of hair on my chest, and everywhere else, don't need any more

 

You should have two reds and one brown coming out of the alternator, the large (12 gage) red goes to a terminal block with aprox. 12 other different wires, it then comes back out of that connector and goes down to the starter first going through the fusible link.

 

So, my mission is the find the terminal block thingy, and grow more hair... gotcha, thanks for your help. It just means I gotta crawl back under the dumb thing, and its suppose to drop to like, 30 degrees tomorrow! Gotta get all this done by the weekend, I am putting my cam and heads on!

 

If you can't grow hair fast enough you'll have to get the Carrharts on, you shouldn't have to spend too much time under the car, the majority of the wire harness is up top. I'ts suppossed to be 50 degree's here tomorrow and I'm north of you.

 

I swear that Alt wire runs into the depths of the frame, into that black abyss that is a '80s GM snakes nest... What on earth would a lone 10 ga wire be doing running under the frame rail if it were going any other place than the battery? Oh well, we're off to see the wizard, the wondering wizard of oz...

 

Does it look like someone may have butchered the wiring?, like maybe they were having charging issues and ran a new wire direct to the battery? I'm going to crash now but I'll go out to the garage tomorrow, TURN THE FURNACE ON, and trace the wire on my car. I'll get back with you with some more info then. See ya'. Thanks for the help on the push rods.

 

On page 14-25 in the shop manual at Starter Motor Solenoid it shows 2a-14 red (thermo), so that's one.

At the alternator regulator it shows 2c 10 red, that connects to 10 red and ends at 2d,
but 2c 10 red turns into 2a 10 red and connects to 16 red (thermo hw) and ends at 2f, thats two, where is that connection?
also at 2f it shows 20 orn (therm hw) and that connects to 106, thats three, where is that?
PG.

 

All-right DryCreamer - I'm back, it's Monday afternoon, done with work, rushed home, went to the garage to look at the wiring in my '78, this car has not been cobbled at all in the wiring department. From the alternator output post the 12 gage solid red wire enters the harness and heads to the firewall. Just below the brake booster is a multi-wire connector that bolts through the firewall and feeds the fuse panel, the alternator wire enters this connector. Internally, a jumper connects to the other side of this plug and the wire continues back out into the engine compartment. It enters another harness and is routed under the brake booster then back up to the firewall near the wiper motor and distributor. To the right of the distributor the harness is connected via another plug with six wires, two or three appear to be 10 gage. From this connector the wires go to the starter solenoid, also at this connector the wires break out for the blower motor and a fusible link is used in that feed. Just before the solenoid are two wires with fusible links, so what you should see here is two 10 gage red wires with the links, one small purple wire which is the start wire, the 0 gage battery cable, and possibly a 16 gage black ground wire. It sounds to me like someone ran your mystery wire from the alternator to the battery in an attempt to get around the fusible links.

 

I once sold a PERFECT (no rust [NO RUST], perfect interior) 1973 Caprice 454 car for $500 because someone (being my brother) crushed the engine wiring harness between the engine and transmission because I didn't want to chase down wiring problems.

Buckshot shot, you just saved me a hours of chasework and you don't even me,

thanks so much!

Here's my plan, get plates for the car (my temp plate expired the 25th), take it to my friends heated garage, find out where the alt wire goes now (which I assume is incorrect, because this main alt wire should be feeding the harness, like yours) and then route it to someplace in the harness where is can do its job proper. I will inspect the harness plug at the firewall (those guys are a bear to get loose) to see if anything looks burnt or cut. That should be the place for it to go. I will also get the other harness plugs and at the starter to see whats getting connection and whats not. After this, I will reconnect the alt wire to where it should go and we should be in business.

I will let you know.

Thanks again dude!

 

I have posted a pretty picture (looks like a 3rd grader made it... maybe I shoulda gotta a 3rd grader to do it, they could do a better job) that is VERY simple, but simple is better when talking about electrical stuff. This is what I learned when rewiring my old externally regulated alternator. This is (although VERY simple) the "proper" way to wire a GM Delco-tron alternator, and will provide the longest service life of both the battery and the alternator. Personally I wouldn't waste my time with one of those "1-wire" alternators. What they do is they take the #2 wire coming off the 1-2 plug in the alternator and they hook it straight to the BAT terminal. What this #2 wire does is it tells the alternator when to kick on (i.e. when the load drops below 13.1 v). If you hook the #2 right to the BAT terminal, it does not get a true reference on what the voltage requirements are for the car, and therefore, the alternator will run at its extremes (will not charge the battery as the car operates, or will constantly charge the battery as the car operates) and the battery or the alternator will junk long before they should.

Maybe this will help someone in the future

There is correction, in the picture, the "Alternator" says Alt, but on the car it will say BAT, my mistake...

[IMG]local://upfiles/7052/B3802ACDB4244DE2B5EE458983E22E3A.jpg[/IMG]

Oh, and I forgot, if you want to use this laternator in something that does not have a GM idiot light, you have to hook the #1 terminal (smaller, brown wire usually) up to a 12 v ignition source and put a 10 ohm 10 watt resistor in line between the #1 and the ignition. The idiot light takes care of this in GM cars, 12v comes from the idiot light to the #1 terminal, and the magnetic field that the alternator generates PREVENTS it from grounding, when there is no field, it grounds and the light comes on. There for, it will come in when the iginition is on and the alternator is not, like when you flip the key to RUN, or when the alternator is bad.